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This is a tea I’ve been interested to try ever since it was released. However, every time I was placing an order with Yunnan Sourcing I ended up prioritizing other teas over it and it was always one of the last things getting dropped when I was trimming my cart. Then late last year I noticed that there were only three cakes left and I was presented with a dilemma: Order a sample, knowing the tea would likely sell out before it arrived, or order a cake blind. I ended up doing the latter. Two days later the tea was sold out. I’m normally not in the habit of reviewing teas that have sold out, but there are actually still some samples left if you want to grab some of this tea. There’s also the possibility that it may be pressed again in future years if Scott has the ability to buy it and the tea is good and priced within reason. If that were to happen, people can at least use my notes as reference.

As mentioned, I didn’t think I would be reviewing this tea, but after having my first casual session with it yesterday, it left such an impression I had to jot down something. I didn’t keep any notes, so this is all going to be from memory like the first few reviews I ever did on Steepster. I used around 7g in a 100ml gaiwan. The smell of the dry leaves in the pre-heated vessel was kind of woody and somewhat alcoholic to my nose. As a non-drinker it’s tough for me to speculate which spirit I feel I was smelling, but the first word that popped into my head was cognac. The Internet tells me it is aged in oak barrels so I might not be too much off. I did my standard 5s rinse followed by a 5 min. rest while I sipped the wash. As all my leaves pried off the cake were in loose form, the rinse was very strong. I don’t recall the exact flavors.

The number and timing might be off, but the infusions went something like 5s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min., 5 min. and 7 min. Those who have seen some of my others reviews may be aware that I typically stop around the 2 or 3 min. mark for steep time even if the tea might have one or two more brews in it. This is because either the tea has ceased being interesting or I’m wary of getting a nasty final brew that ends an otherwise great session on a bad note. The Secret Garden was at around the same mark after a 7 min. infusion as most young raws after a 2 min. infusion, so the longevity was certainly great.

Early on I was getting some notes of white grapes. This quickly transformed into grapefruit or something reminiscent of that for most of the rest of the session. From the very beginning, both bitterness and tartness were present in the tea and competing for dominance. Early on the tartness was in the lead, but after the mid-steeps it slowly faded away while the bitterness began rising along with sweetness. I found both the bitterness and tartness in this tea very enjoyable and certainly one of the highlights for me. They were never persistent or abrasive.

The mouthfeel is another highlight. While currently not the most viscous tea, the texture is extremely oily, or at least that’s the best word I can come up with to describe it. The tea felt great in the mouth and this texture was something that was present practically till the end, which is not always the case with these young teas. This tea is kind of the opposite of the Xiang Chun Lin which I reviewed recently, where the tea was really thick in the mouth but uninteresting in terms of texture.

I can’t really speak for qi during the session as I was forced to take long breaks between most infusions due to factors beyond my control. I believe I may have felt some heat at one point and small things like that, but with the long breaks between infusions the effects may have been less pronounced. For the rest of the day however after the session I could feel the life energy in the tea coursing through my body and I felt pretty great.

All in all the Ai Lao was an exceptional tea, especially for the price. It is exactly the kind of tea I personally like: strong, bitter, clean. Something that’s not too sweet, has great texture and feels great in the body. While right at the beginning I was reminded a bit of Wu Liang, for most of the session the tea was actually very much like a Lao Man’e. It is not as strong and not as bitter as the most intense Lao Man’es I’ve had, nor does it have the characteristic aroma, but otherwise it’s a very close match in terms of flavor profile. Had this been served to me as a Lao Man’e, I would have most definitely not doubted that statement. Speaking of Lao Man’e, I finally picked up a bing of the Hai Lang Hao 2016 Lao Man’e which was my first love when it comes to bitter teas in the recent Yunnan Sourcing sale. Not an easy purchase to justify, but after trying various other teas from the village it still remains unmatched.

At nearly 30¢/g, this is not a budget tea, but for the quality I think the price is more than reasonable. Were it sold for double the price, I’m quite confident I’d still buy it. If you missed out on this tea or were only able to get a sample, some alternate recommendations I can give would obviously be the aforementioned Lao Man’e. I think the standard release of Bitterleaf’s The Bitter End is a good one if you don’t want something overly bitter. Something about this tea also reminded me of Slumbering Dragon by Crimson Lotus. I don’t know if it’s the very clean, pure nature of this tea or something else. I’m not sure if the Slumbering Dragon is technically purple varietal, but it certainly tastes like one. If you know you aren’t into that, then maybe that’s not the tea for you.

Hopefully Scott is able to get this tea in future years. It is a very special tea.

As far as I’m aware, I believe this is the most expensive tea Yunnan Sourcing has pressed to date. In typical YS fashion, my 10g sample actually contained a very generous 11.7g. I could have tried to split this into two sessions, but I didn’t feel like it. On the other hand the largest gaiwan I had on hand for this session was 140ml, so after some deliberation I closed my eyes, threw it all in and hoped to not get totally smashed by this tea. Doing the math now after the fact I realize that comes down to 1g/12ml. Oh boy.

As is typical of Yunnan Sourcing’s 10g samples, mine was mostly in loose form. To my surprise I smelled cream and mocha wafting from the warm gaiwan, not something you’d expect from a young sheng such as this. I gave the leaves my typical 5s rinse followed by a 5 min. rest while I sipped the wash. Not sure if my palate was confused, but what I tasted was akin to the smell. Some cream, hints of mocha in the aftertaste accompanied by some coffee bitterness as well. Very strange and unexpected for a young raw like this.

I proceeded to do a full dozen steeps with the Xiang Chun Lin, the timing for these being 6s, 5s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min. The tea started off strong, light and bright. Strong in terms of strength, light in terms of the nature of its flavors if that confuses you. I was tasting some minerals and also still getting the mocha, cream and slight bitterness from before. The body was decent to start, good once the tea cooled down. The mouthfeel was somewhat oily and slick. After a couple of small cups the cha qi suddenly hit me hard out of nowhere, feeling it both in my head and chest.

The second steeping was super thick. Definitely strong, but extremely palatable. I could definitely still taste some hints of mocha, maybe even some vanilla. The bitterness had been reduced to barely a whisper now. The qi was hitting me in the chest like a hammer at this point. The immediate reaction evoked by the third infusion was that it was thick. The taste was much more acidic now, something that seems to be a trend among 2018 Yiwus I notice. I was possibly getting some hints of citrus to accompany the tartness, but I can’t be completely sure. Over time a sort of acidic sweetness built up in your mouth, making it really sweet. This was very interesting to experience as it was a totally new type of sweetness for me. I would say that the tea was somewhat oily in terms of its taste as well. The qi was pulsing in my head now. At this point the Xiang Chun Lin was reminding me of Bitterleaf’s WMD on steroids.

Steep four was thick and heavy. It had a tartness that spread across the tongue. The tea remained super palatable and there actually wasn’t too much flavor upfront, the focus of the tea shifting more toward the aftertaste now. For the next four brews the body only continued to get thicker and thicker. Steeps six and seven of these presented a thick honied taste while retaining the tartness as well. Steeps seven and eight were practically a dense, thick broth.

From the ninth steep onward the tea began to simplify and veer more toward typical green, vegetal flavors most expect to see from a young sheng. Infusion ten while also acidic and sweet also now had some real fleeting bitterness. The last two brews were pleasant, smooth and refreshing and also quite sweet as many Yiwus tend to get at this point. As the last steep started to get somewhat watery, I decided to end it there to avoid any nasty surprises.

As you’d hope from a tea this expensive, the quality of the material is very high. Despite the heavy amount of leaf, the Xiang Chun Lin remained very palatable at all times, never becoming overpowering or unpleasant. I don’t know how much of this is a product of the amount of leaf, but the tea brewed up very thick from practically start to finish, albeit the actual texture of the soup wasn’t necessarily the most rewarding.

I definitely got some qi in the early steeps, which is not something I can say for every tea. Ultimately I would have yearned some more bodily sensations to make the session more memorable, but it’s certainly a great tea as it is. Akin to some green teas, the tea did take a bit of a toll on my body, so if you are sensitive to that sort of thing and would rather avoid subjecting yourself to that when possible, this might not be the tea for you at least in its current green state.

While the early mocha notes were interesting, the tartness that mainly dominated the tea in the mid to late steeps isn’t really my favorite flavor profile at least by itself. Were it accompanied by some fruit I’d be more into it, but as of right now it doesn’t really keep me engaged. While a very good tea in terms of quality, it is not one I’ll be looking to purchase at least based on this session. Personally I prefer the Yi Shan Mo which is a tad cheaper and I now own a bing of. I would need to do a side-by-side comparison, but I think I’d probably consider this similar but superior to the aforementioned Bitterleaf WMD Mansa which I own two vintages of. While priced similarly, what I would consider WMD’s advantage in this case is its smaller 100g size which makes it a smaller monetary investment and the bings thanks to their small size are also much easier to slot into one’s pumidor even if things are cramped.

This is a tea that’s great to drink now. It is one of the rare cases where I find it hard to speculate how it would age. I would expect a tea of this quality to age gracefully in most cases, but this particular flavor profile makes it very hard to imagine in which direction it will go. I’d expect to see fruit and more sweetness as is the case with many Yiwus, but that’s about the extent of my ability to speculate.

As a big fan of the now already sold out Eden huang pian, I’ve been itching to give this one another go. I did try it a few months back when it was still very young and concluded it needed more time. I had 8.5g of my sample left so I dumped it all in a 130ml gaiwan. Quick five second rinse followed by a five minute rest. The aroma off the wet leaf was really creamy. The wash had a soft mouthfeel. The flavor was strong, really strong. I was getting a blend of mineral and creamy. Some bananas as well. Bananas in whipped cream. The taste of bananas was left lingering in the mouth and the empty cup smelled like burnt sugar.

I proceeded to do ten infusions, the timing for these being 8s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s and 2 min. The tea soup already had body in the first steep. Smooth texture. While the flavors themselves were light the tea was strong. I was getting garden soil counterbalanced by slight sweetness. The finish had a combination of both fried and raw bananas. The steep that followed saw a slightly diminished texture. I was tasting cream, mineral rich soil and a whisper of caramel. There were definitely raw/unripe fruit in the finish.

The third infusion continued to brew up strong. It had a mineral taste that dominated everything. It’s rare that I’ve gotten so much flavor in a single cup of tea. What I was tasting was primarily that garden soil. The tea had a very clean, clear profile. Whenever I drink a tea this strong, I have very few doubts it would age well. I could definitely feel the tea at this point, but it wasn’t anything overpowering.

Steep four was sweet. Really sweet. I was also still getting the unripe fruit as well. Bananas, cream… crazy huigan. The garden soil from before was still there hanging in the background. From this point on the body became quite thick with the increasing brewing times while the taste became mainly sweet with the earthiness still present and the minerals sometimes overtaking the sweetness. Steep eight is the point at which the flavors were clearly starting to taper off, but it took until the tenth steep that the tea started tasting nasty and I decided to call it there.

Examining the leaves at the end of the session, they look quite a lot smaller than you typical sheng pu’er picking. While not that well versed in tea picking, this to me would either indicate that these are mixed leaf varietal which I know grows in some parts of the greater Yiwu area (not sure about Man Zhuan) or are perhaps first flush pickings picked at an earlier stage into their growth. Either way, I’m attributing the strength of this tea at least in part to the smaller leaf size which generally tends to contribute to stronger brews.

All in all this was a great tea. It has developed a lot since I had it this summer, and if the huang pian gives any window into which direction the tea can be expected to develop, I would expect it to become hella fruity in the coming months and years. The texture is already very good and I can definitely see Eden becoming a bit of a texture monster a decade down the line. While not cheap, the tea definitely delivers what you’d expect at this price. If I had more space in my pumidor, I’d definitely grab a bing, but as things stand right now, I’m forced to make some tough choices. While Eden was very good, at its current state it didn’t blow my socks off and if I’m going to invest in another Yiwu that’s pretty much what a tea needs to do at this point. I may need to revisit this one six or twelve months from now if it’s still available and see how it’s progressing. Regardless, Eden has definitely earned my recommendation.

As someone who mainly drinks young raw pu’er for the time being, probably my main issue with aged teas has been that it is hard to find teas where the quality of the base material matches the teas I’m used to drinking, and even if you find some the prices can get absolutely ridiculous and verifying the authenticity of the tea challenging unless you are dealing with a vendor whom you trust to trust that the tea is what it claims to be. While Hai Lang may not have started out as such, today he is mainly known for his more premium productions. This tea falls somewhere in between, being made from older trees yet remaining quite affordable despite having some age on it already. While familiar with the name, I don’t believe I’d had tea from Nannuo before. I believe it’s located somewhere in Menghai county, possibly somewhere in the vicinity of Bulang, but that’s about the extent of my knowledge.

For this session I used 5g of tea in a 75ml Yixing zhuni clay teapot. The pot is new, having only been used once before for a more casual session with this very same tea, but since this type of clay is in part appreciated for the less dramatic effect it has on tea compared to other types of zisha, I wouldn’t expect it to absorb too much of the flavors even this new. I rinsed the leaves briefly for under ten seconds and gave them a couple of minutes to absorb the moisture before proceeding. I did a total of eleven infusions, the timing for these being 10s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min. and 4 min.

The Nannuo started off very full-bodied and creamy. Really, really thick. There wasn’t much taste yet, but the sticky soup coated the surfaces of your mouth. The taste was creamy, sweet and mineral, with some hints of underlying bitterness or smokiness. The finish in particular had a subtle sour smokiness to it. Steep two was thick and creamy still. Sweeter, with more clear bitterness now. This was a bitterness that transforms into sweetness, leaving your mouth really sweet and a tad spicy.

Some astringency emerged in the third infusion. Nothing major yet, though. Otherwise it remained largely unchanged. Full-bodied, sweet, with a pleasant bitterness that turns into sweetness, leaving my tongue slightly numb afterwards. The fourth steep was the same deal, but now slightly drying and also boasting a nice caramel note in the finish.

The next four steeps did not bring much change. Brew number six was noteworthy though for its almost immediate huigan. Somewhere along the way the bitterness ceased being pleasant, turning into something less so. After this, starting with the ninth steep, the tea acquired a somewhat honied character to it, whereas the bitterness and sweetness were more muted compared to before.

While still possessing plenty of body in the tenth steep, the flavors were definitely getting thinner now. The tea was mainly sweet, but also bitter in the finish. The color had faded substantially by the final steep. While there was an adequate amount of flavor still, the tea was also starting to feel quite watery by this point. I decided to call the session there.

All in all the 2010 Nannuo was an okay tea. The material is definitely better than your standard factory production, but didn’t necessarily strike me as high-end. There is huigan and transforming bitterness — things you’d look for in, say, a Bulang tea — but overall I didn’t find anything particularly memorable or special about this tea. While the quality is better than some similarly aged daily drinkers from Bulang, I’d personally rather drink some of those teas than this one.

While taste-wise I imagine this tea hasn’t changed all too much from when it was young, the age is most evident in the texture and mouthfeel. The texture is definitely that of an aged tea which you don’t get in younger teas. While not a weak tea, the Nannuo doesn’t necessarily possess the amount of strength I would like to see in a tea to have confidence that it won’t go flat over the years. I’m not entirely sure how a tea like this would age, but based on how it is right now, it feels like it has a long way to go still.

The handful of young raws I’ve had from Jing Mai in the past have all made me conclude that I didn’t particularly like the general characteristic they shared. Despite this I actually bought a cake of this particular tea blind back when it was released. Why did I do this? There were two influencing factors. First, my track record with Yunnan Sourcing brand raw pu’ers has been generally very good. I tend to like the kind of teas Scott sources. Second, before this tea, I believe Scott hadn’t pressed a Jing Mai tea since 2013. For him to decide to press this one and especially at such a high price point for Yunnan Sourcing, that gave me confidence that if there was any Jing Mai I might like, this one had hope.

As Jing Mai is famous for its fragrance, but pu’er processed for the longterm generally requires time to develop fragrance, it was obvious to me to give a tea like this at least this much time before trying it out. Since my precious little cake is intended for storage, I went ahead and ordered a sample for this session to avoid having to break into it. This also makes my notes more comparable to those ordering a sample for themselves as it removes the influence of over a year in my own storage. Surprisingly, what I received was essentially just a single piece of the cake. I’m used to receiving my YS 10g samples totally loose. Fortunately I knew from experience to weigh mine, because my scale ended up displaying 11.4g. This was just about the perfect amount for my 165ml silver lined gaiwan, so that’s what I ended up using.

I gave the tea a brief five second rinse followed by a five minute rest while I sipped the wash. The compression on my piece at least was quite tight compared to what I’m used to seeing from Yunnan Sourcing, but I could have been dealing with a part closer to the center of the bing, although I couldn’t tell. Because of the tightness, the wash was essentially still quite light and watery, but already nice and oily though. There was a nice, floral aroma in the finish, possibly jasmine. Really wonderful finish. I proceeded to do a total of nine infusions, the timing for these being 7s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s and 2 min.

The tea started off soft, oily and floral — unlike any other Jing Mai I’ve had. Absent were the honied and strong mineral notes and instead it was like drinking nectar from a bouquet of flowers. I’m very unfamiliar with flowers, but I’ve had jasmine tea a few times and I’d say for me jasmine is one of the most prominent floral notes in this. The tea left a nice lingering floral sweetness in the mouth. Had this been served to me blind, I don’t think I would have guessed Jing Mai. The softness made me think of lighter, gentler Yiwus or perhaps Xigui. So far I was quite impressed, and surprised.

Whereas the first infusion was still quite light, the second one was already quite strong. You wouldn’t necessarily expect that from a tea with such light, delicate and subtle notes. But that’s Scott for ya, he likes to source strong teas, and I like to drink them. If the tea had still been somewhat subtle in the first steep, it was now full on floral. It was an amazing experience to drink and produced a nice tingling sensation at the back of the mouth.

By the time I got to the third steep, my tongue was already so covered with the various compounds from the tea that I could basically taste it just by bringing the aromatic soup to my mouth and breathing in through it. The flower fest continued, but now there was also some underlying young raw earthiness present. This earthiness rose to dominate the tea in the fourth infusion, while the flowers continued their strong presence in the finish. While a bit thinner than before, the tea was still quite, quite strong. After finishing the cup, it felt like the tea was massaging my throat, which was really nice.

The tea became slightly dry and almost dirt-tasting in the next steep. Dry in a good way. This developed even further in the sixth infusion, which was really refreshing and juicy to start with and then turned dry in the finish. This created a cycle of you wanting to drink more and more tea. Both the taste and body feel were wonderful, euphoric almost. Mmm, so good.

The juicy, refreshing and earthy character continued in the seventh steep, but the jasmine from the beginning was now back or at least revealed again from underneath the earthier tones, unearthed you could say. The Jing Mai finally began to fall off in the eighth infusion. It was still quite strong actually, with some sweetness now beginning to emerge, but the tea was clearly in its twilight now. There was actually still a very decent amount of body, more than your typical pu’er at this stage. Very strong lingering aromatics as well. I could have easily still carried on after the ninth steep, but the tea was beginning to approach your standard leaf juice, and while there was still plenty of flavor and the tea wasn’t watery at all, I expected things to only be downhill from there and so decided to call it there.

This is yet another case of me making a very fortunate blind purchase. I couldn’t be much happier with this tea. The quality is very high and the experience was quite unique among the ones I’ve had. This is most certainly the most floral tea I’ve had and no slouch at all in terms of strength. A great demonstration of how delicateness and subtlety don’t mean a tea has to be weak. Fans of high-end Yiwu will be right at home with this tea and while it does not compete with the best of the $1/g teas, it is very competitive at its price point. With this kind of quality and strength, I would expect a tea like this to age beautifully.

This was among the first bings I ever bought, yet it has remained untouched until now. I picked this up in early 2017, back when this tea would have still been very young. Unwrapping it now for the first time, I’m surprised by how autumnal the colors have already turned, veering more toward brown than green. The cake looks good, the leaves intact and pressed in the traditional manner. I used seven grams in my 100ml gaiwan. Sub-ten second rinse, followed by a five minute rest while I sipped the wash. The tea was sweet, milky, peachy. Nice body and mouthfeel. Soft, thick and slick. Plenty of minerals as well. Long finish. Promising so far.

I proceeded to do eight more infusions, the timing for these being 7s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s and 75s respectively. The first steep was similar to the wash, just slightly less of everything. Less flavor, less body, more rock minerals pushing through. The tea was still milky, sweet and a touch fruity. The liquor was very soft and welcoming – very feminine. The tea really left your tongue tasting like you’d just licked a rock. Not saying that in a negative sense, just an attribute of the tea. Again, a long aftertaste.

Second infusion had a sharp mineral and metallic taste. I was less impressed than before, but still held hope for this tea. The texture was still nice as was the gentle fruity sweetness which was now starting to veer more toward apricot. The apricot was much more upfront in the next steep where it became very prominent. It wasn’t too sweet, which I liked, but also not too dry. The tea was slightly refreshing, yet made you yearn for more. There was a slight milkiness to the finish. The minerals present in the earlier infusions were still there of course, but they were staying out of the spotlight for now.

The following steep was as good as the previous, if not better. Soft, fruity, jammy. Nice mouthfeel, nice sweetness. It felt like I was almost getting some vanilla now, although the note shared a lot in common with metallic so not sure which it was. The tea left my mouth incredibly sweet, crazy sweet. My tongue also became restless and wouldn’t keep still.

Starting with the fifth steep, the body began to get thinner. The flavors were also less clear now. I was getting some apricot, minerals and garden soil still. The finish was slightly drying now. Not necessarily in a bad way, some might like it. The flavor began dropping fast as well starting with the next brew. While that steep was still okay, increasing levels of nastiness began to emerge in the last two steeps and I ended up tossing the last one. While it’s possible the tea could have still recovered and gotten over this bump, I decided to call it there.

While unsure what to expect going in, I was actually pleasantly surprised by this tea. I used to also have a cake of its spring counterpart, but upon revisiting it some months back I ended up gifting it to a friend to make room in my pumidor as I still wasn’t terribly impressed with it. I found this tea quite enjoyable, even if very generic in its flavor profile. As a daily drinker it works well though and assuming it’s been properly processed I can definitely see it aging quite well. While there are plenty of other great alternatives out there, as a first introduction to raw pu’er this one would definitely serve quite well.

Now more knowledgeable about pu’er than back when I bought this cake, it puzzles me that this tea costs the same as the spring, when usually autumn harvest sells for half the price if not less. Putting that aside, 28¢/g for an Yiwu is not bad. Definitely not cheap, especially for autumn, but if you’re looking for something to drink now and aren’t looking for the absolute best value for your money, you can do worse than this tea. There are some absolute bomb autumn Yiwus out there, though, as long as you’re willing to look and especially if you’re willing to pay just a little more. When it comes to spring, I would also look into huang pian as it offers some amazing value.

I grabbed a cake of this almost exactly a year ago. I’ve been letting it chill, but finally it felt like the time to break this bad boy out. The compression is tighter than I personally prefer to deal with and you’ll inevitably end up creating some tea dust. For this session I used a 160ml Yixing zini teapot that’s a fairly new acquisition, but one that I’ve been using a fair bit to try to break it in. Initially when I got it it cleaned up the taste to a ridiculous degree absorbing virtually all of the base notes. I ended up bumping up the normal ratio of 12g that I use for shu to 16g just to get the strength to match my Jianshui pot of the same size. I’ve been gradually able to bring the ratio back down to around 12g and I’m still trying to decide if I need to go even slightly below that on average, because many of the teas are still turning up quite potent even for my tastes. The tea the pot is brewing up is really good now and this was the first time I felt confident enough in using it for a review. The difference between Jianshui and Yixing zini is night and day, but I’m not going to get into my impressions on that here as I’m still discovering them myself.

For this session I ended up using 11.5g. I was considering going with 11g just in case this tea was potent, but ended up with a compromise between 11 and 12g. I did a single 10s rinse followed by a rest of five to ten minutes to allow the moisture to seep in and prime the leaves. I forwent my trusty Jianshui clay teacup this time around just because I felt like it and since I’ve found that with the zini pot I don’t find it an absolute necessity unlike when brewing in Jianshui. I did ten infusions, the timing for these being 12s, 10s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 18s, 30s, 45s, 75s and 2 min. respectively.

The first thing I noticed about Storm Breaker was its smoothness. This tea is very smooth. The body was light to medium to start with and the texture quite nice and unique. While there were some earthier notes present of course, the tea was fairly bright overall. I tasted a subtle sweetness that lay somewhere between a berry and a caramel sweetness. In the second infusion those darker notes became more prominent and there was now a touch of bitterness in the finish as well. The tea became increasingly more bittersweet once it cooled, ending up tasting like the darkest of the dark chocolates, just without the chocolate. The quality of this tea was already evident to me at this point.

The third brew presented a mix between the profiles of the first two by combining the berries from the first with the bitter notes from the second which were also now joined by new roasted notes. The result was kind of like a really gentle and refined coffee, one that as a non-coffee drinker I could imagine the fancier coffees possibly tasting like. This was nothing like the generic shus that are often reminiscent of diluted or cheap coffee, but seldom the good stuff. This was the best steep so far. This is a very elegant tea.

In the fourth infusion we were beginning to lose some of that nice texture. At the same time the background bitterness was quite high now. The tea was dominated by bitter, roasted and coffee notes. A touch of the berry sweetness peeked its head in the fifth brew, but this got overpowered by the bitterness. On the other hand I was noticing some mouth cooling now. At this point it was also becoming clear that this tea can take a toll on the body, especially if brewed strong, and I would recommend keeping some snacks on hand.

Steep six was sweeter, brighter, with less bitterness, but also somewhat weaker than the other infusions because I held back on the time afraid the tea might get too strong otherwise. Texture was good still, feeling very expansive in the mouth. At this point I found myself craving some more development from this tea.

I haven’t talked about the color of the liquor yet, but this tea brews up a dark red. Steep seven is when I was able to barely make out the bottom of my white porcelain cup. The flavor was bright, but still quite bitter. The tea was starting to get creamier, both in taste and texture. The soup was at its thickest now, impressively thick. I was actually finding it very hard to swallow as my commands weren’t getting through. The following infusion was thinner, but smooth still. There was quite an alcoholic tinge to the finish, or at least that’s how I’d describe it as a non-drinker. Overall the general presentation of this steep was quite wine-like, something I associate with certain Menghai area ripes I notice.

The second-to-last infusion was very nice. Sweet and sticky – very reminiscent of a plethora of shus out there, just a much better version of them. I’d likely describe the sweetness as approaching date-like. The tea was so sweet it almost hurt. Mouthfeel and texture remained supreme compared to most average shus. The tenth steep was the last one I did. In it we pretty much returned back to the beginning with the berries and generic sweetness, but this time with a slight alcoholic tinge to it all and thinner texture overall. Mouthfeel remained nice – smooth and lubricating – and there was a somewhat refreshing quality to the tea now. I could tell that we were at the tail end now, though, and I decided to call it there just to be safe and avoid ruining good memories with a bad experience.

I’m happy to report that Storm Breaker’s promises of being made from higher quality material than typically used for shu are very evident in the cup. The smooth mouthfeel is definitely one of the standout qualities and the flavors are very refined and clearly defined. While I found the tea to lack some development and be dominated by bitterness in the middle steeps, this eventually corrected itself and my slightly reserved opinion eventually turned into a positive one. This tea actually brews out a lot like a raw pu’er if you think about it, and looking at the leaves at the end of the session they are actually possibly the lightest I’ve seen in ripe, very similar to Yiwu Rooster but possibly even paler. I haven’t had a raw that’s been dry stored for a number of decades, but I could imagine one that still had bitterness left after all that time being somewhat reminiscent of this tea. While drinkable now with maybe a slightly lighter hand or if you like the bitterness, this is definitely a tea made for the long term, with great care from great material. This is genuinely one of those shus I can easily see people wanting to age for ten years and more – two decades is definitely no joke. I’m not saying you have to, I’m saying you can. That should say something about the tea.

Did I like this tea? I had a good session with it. What does that mean? I think the quality is high and I’m interested to see where this tea will go. There were infusions that I enjoyed very much, but for me the time to drink this tea is not now. This was a nice glimpse into the tea, but now I’m going to be tucking it away in my pumidor for a number of years, to be revisited sparingly to conserve this precious tea. Would I have purchased a cake if this were just a sample? I’m pretty sure I would have. Even among the ripes made from “better material,” this is one of the ones that stands out. I’d consider this a sheng drinker’s shu, as the quality and character of the original material is still being allowed to shine through.

If nothing more, Storm Breaker is definitely worth a sample. As alternative recommendations, this one reminded me in a way of Bitterleaf’s Plum Beauty ripe at least in terms of quality. Hai Lang Hao’s Yi Shan Mo ripe is also of course a personal favorite of mine. All occupy virtually the same price point, so they would make for a great comparison. At ten bucks cheaper than Crimson Lotus’s Black Gold, I prefer this tea over that one.

I received a free sample of this with an order a while back. I’ve also tried the regular Eden some months back, but at the time concluded it needed more time. My sample was essentially just a single piece of the brick. I didn’t have my more accurate scale on hand, but a simple kitchen scale that only has a display resolution of one gram hovered between 17 and 18g. I ended up using the whole thing in my 250ml Yixing clay teapot (Ben Shan Duan Ni). Massive, I know, but it brews amazing tea and the clay and craftsmanship are just stunning. Relative to the size the pour is actually really fast, seven seconds according to my mental clock, and the tea just shoots out like from a jet engine. Unfortunately I was forced to use a gooseneck kettle for this session and filling the pot full with it takes forever. Under such circumstances I would have never loaded in 17 grams for most teas, but since this was Yiwu, since it was huang pian and since it was all just a single tightly compressed chunk, I knew it would work out.

Just smelling the sample bag was quite an affair. Really fruity, with an artificial, candy-like quality to it. Then it clicked: gummy bears. The dry leaf smells just like gummy bears! I did a ten second rinse followed by a five minute rest while I sipped the wash. The liquor was mineral and fruity. More flavorful than you’d expect from just a single piece of compressed tea. I proceeded to do nine infusions, the timing for these being 20s, 16s, 16s, 16s, 18s, 20s, 25s, 35s and 75s. Sixteen seconds essentially represents a flash brew in this case given the kettle I was using to fill up the pot.

Little Eden lite started off light, mineral, slightly buttery with a bit of a sparkly mineral water sensation of the tongue. As the tea cooled, hints of fruitiness and sweetness started to emerge. After struggling to identify the fruit, the picture finally became clear and I knew what I was tasting: bananas, fried bananas with slight caramelization. That’s a new one for me.

Virtually every steep was very mineral, slightly sweet and varying degrees of fruity so I’m not going to repeat those things. Steep two saw the fruit moving from banana to perhaps a more peachy direction. Starting with the third infusion the tea started to feel quite easygoing, refreshing, hydrating and somewhat lubricating.

For the fourth steep I broke up the still largely intact large chunk into three smaller chunks and this really helped the color, which became immediately more yellow instead of pale and clear. The flavor was really nice now, not that I had complaints before, really fruity, really, really fruity. Not too sweet, not too dry. This tea is more mineral than I usually prefer, but overall it’s a very minor thing. The fruitiness was now a cocktail of bananas and a stone fruit of some sort.

The fruit moved toward apricot in the fifth infusion. I’m not sure if I was actually tasting some wood in the sixth steep or just thinking I could see this tea developing some of those notes in ten years’ time, but at this point the tea started reminding me a lot of Bitterleaf’s WMD and Hidden Gem. While there isn’t too much to say, the tea was good. Really good actually.

Starting with the seventh brew the tea was beginning to veer more towards acidic. The flavors were beginning to taper off as you’d expect, but the tea was definitely still going. I did two more infusions and while the tea could have most likely kept going with increasingly long steeping times, I decided to call it there as I’d frankly drunk a lot of tea by this point.

This tea really surprised me. This is most likely the fruitiest sheng I’ve had to date and just one of the fruitiest teas in general. Fans of fruity dan congs would likely be all over this tea. At eight cents per gram this might very well also be the cheapest raw pu’er I’ve ever drunk. This might be the bargain of the year right here. I’d call this tea really, really good and possibly the most drinkable young sheng I’ve encountered. I got absolutely no bitterness or astringency, not even a hint of them, can’t say how much of a role the clay played. I’m not sure if this tea gets bitter ever and it would most likely be a prime candidate for grandpa style.

As mentioned, fans of dan cong should definitely check this one out. Those who like Bitterleaf’s WMD and Hidden Gem will likely be onboard as well. For my tastes the tea is a bit too mineral tasting as mentioned, but other than that it’s a nice casual brew. This would make for a wonderful introduction for someone new to raw pu’er or even quality tea in general. While a high-quality tea, it should not be mistaken for a high-end tea. The thickness and mouthfeel didn’t really seem to be there nor did I get any qi. On the other hand the flavors are great, longevity seems surprisingly good and even after drinking probably over two liters of this stuff I didn’t feel any lightheadedness, dizziness or issues with my stomach. I think the aging potential is there if you just look at Hidden Gem, but drinking it now seems the most attractive option. Then again at $21 for 250g you could easily buy a kilo of this and drink half, store half.

I need to try the regular Eden again once it’s had time to chill out a bit more.

I bought a cake of this right after it was released. It has had six months to chill in my pumidor and today I felt like finally giving it a shot. This is the second Yiwu ripe I’ve tried, the first one being the Hai Lang Hao 2017 Yi Shan Mo. Premium and ultra premium ripes have been a growing trend in recent years and while not highest of the high-end, at 22¢/g Yi Wu Rooster is definitely priced above what most people are accustomed to paying for shu pu’er.

The dry material looks much more akin to raw cakes than your typical ripe. I recall Scott saying in his YouTube video for this tea that he suspects it was likely originally intended to be sold as a sheng and the decision to turn it into a shu was made later. The compression isn’t too tight at all and I was careful to maintain leaf integrity while I broke into the little pie. I used a suitable ratio of large chunks to smaller individual pieces in my trusty 160ml Jianshui clay teapot, 12g total. The tea was also drunk from a cup made from the same clay.

I gave the leaves a ten second rinse, followed by a five minute rest during which I prodded the larger pieces gently with my finger to help them come apart more easily. This was almost not necessary because of the loose compression. I proceeded to do nine infusions, the timing for these being 10s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s and 2 min.

The first infusion brewed up a cloudy diluted cola as you’d expect from a tea this young. The initial taste was that of sweet dirt. Really sweet. A really bright sweetness. There was a certain coffee/caramel vibe as well, but without any of the darker base notes that coffee has for example. Overall the flavors were really bright and forward, not veiled or obscured in any way. So far this was a quite unique tea. The aftertaste was long; coffee, caramel, insane sweetness.

The second infusion brewed much clearer. Darker, but nothing crazy. Certainly dark though. The taste was quite clean, but not 100% clean, more like 90%. The flavors were light in nature (nothing to do with actual strength), body medium or close to it, improved from before. I could taste some red berries, with some very minor bitterness in the finish. The bitterness was also accompanied by sweetness and there was some minor cooling in the mouth. The finish eventually turned into pretty typical shu flavors, but was accompanied by noticeable sweetness and the finish of berries. I might’ve started feeling the tea a little at this point. I don’t necessarily mean that in the sense of qi.

Steep three was likely the best so far. The flavors were coming across more clearly than in the previous steep, similar to the first one. There was slightly less body now, but still relatively similar to before, light+. The flavors were really lasting. One sip was enough and after that you didn’t want to drink more for a while since there was no point. The sweetness was really potent. I could feel it in my gums. I think I’d describe it as a date-like sweetness, although it’s been a while since I’ve had dates. There was some very minor bitterness in the finish. For a shu this is a quite potent tea. Not among the most potent ones I’ve had, but more potent than most. I’m not talking about flavor here. Not necessarily qi either, more just how much you “feel” the tea in your body. That being said, I did start feeling the effect of the tea on my tongue, a certain numbness starting to spread to it. Once the tea cooled it did actually get considerably thick. As you kept drinking the overall impression started veering more and more toward toffee and caramel notes, caramel coffee is how I’d describe it.

My first impression of steep four was that it was sweet. The tea was starting to develop some darker tones now as well. I could feel the tea at the back of my mouth. There was also something familiar that I was finding hard to place. A some sort of roasted note perhaps. While a gentle tea on one hand, it is also deceptively potent. I found myself having to slow down my drinking at this point. The fact that this was only steep four scared me a little.

Of course immediately after I thought that the fifth steep brewed much thinner, the tea beginning to simplify in the process. While the flavor notes were a touch “thin” now, they were still coming across swimmingly. We were now back to those berries. There was a definitive berry sweetness accompanied by underlying darker shu notes – ones I’d classify falling somewhere in the roasted category or perhaps slightly in the dirt/sand territory rather than in the woodsy or overly soily bracket. I’ve never drunk wine (I don’t drink), so I’m not entirely sure what it is people are talking about when they speak of tannins. However, right after downing the last of this infusion I could feel an unpleasant dry sensation at the back of my mouth/tongue, different from your typical astringency. This is something I’ve experienced before, in the context of Lipton black tea or bad coffee if my memory serves right, but I could be mistaken as it hasn’t happened to me recently. I’ve never experienced this in the context of quality whole leaf tea, so it was a bit of a surprise. I don’t know if it’s tannins or me developing a sore throat, so I’m not going to hold it against the tea too much. Moving on.

From this point on the tea became fairy simple and mainly sweet, but steeps six and seven still had a small amount of depth to the notes and complexity to the tea as a whole. I can easily see many people losing interest at this point, though. There was an increasing level of minerality and the tannins from steep five were still present in steep six, but disappeared after that. The last two infusions were not enjoyable anymore and I actually ended up tossing them. Steep nine was severely lacking in color as well.

Those familiar with my other reviews may know that my track record with Yunnan Sourcing’s sheng pu’ers has generally been quite good. The kind of teas Scott likes to source – strong, clean, pure – are something that appeal to me. When it comes to the Yunnan Sourcing brand ripe pu’ers, I’ve found them less to my tastes. None of them have been bad (although I hated my first session with Rooster King, it has improved since then), but all of them I’ve found merely okay, which is not enough to satisfy me. One exception is Wild Purple Green Mark, which I highly recommend, but that’s a blend of raw and ripe so it doesn’t really qualify as a pure shu. And now there’s this tea. I wasn’t sure what to expect given my track record with other YS ripes, but this tea is good. It is quite unique among ripes and highly enjoyable during the first half. The flavors are strong and well defined and the aftertaste very long-lasting in the first several steeps. The longevity is somewhat disappointing at this stage, but given the age of the tea, age of the tea trees, the region and the level of fermentation, it is not at all surprising. Hopefully this will improve with age.

In its current state, I would categorize this tea as perfectly drinkable right now. It is not totally clean tasting just yet, but unless you demand your shus ultra clean, I doubt you’ll have issues with it. Those specifically looking for those dirt notes will not find them here. For me this tea borders on being too sweet, and at some point in the future I could see it crossing that threshold. If you are eyeballing an Yiwu ripe, you know you’re most likely getting a sweet tea. Despite what I said about this tea being drinkable now, my personal recommendation would actually be to hold off for at least two to five years before drinking it. This is most definitely one of the less fermented ripes I’ve had and a lot of room has been left for it to develop. I think the potency I spoke of in my notes may very well stem from the relative “greenness” of these leaves. The steeped leaves look very much like sheng with a fair amount of age, but nothing even remotely close to fully mature sheng or much more heavily fermented shu that’s just black. Those who can find some green teas or less oxidized wulongs at times too potent or taxing on your body may want to let this tea age a fair bit like I intend to do. Drinking it now, while good, does not let the tea show its full potential.

To sum up my thoughts, while not as good as the absolute high-end ripes out there, this is a really good tea for the price. At the very least I would recommend a sample for those interested, but depending on your personal preferences this is not a tea for everyone. If you are a fan of Yiwu sheng, but have never tried a Yiwu ripe before, I would consider this a good introduction.

I thought I was out of white2tea teas, but I’d forgotten I had a small mini bing or whatever people call these flat, dragon ball-esque coin things of this tea that I received as a freebie with my order of some samples. This has been sitting in my pumidor for a year now and it’s frankly a wonder it did not get lost somewhere between the cakes. I drank this away from home with some company and only weighed it with the wrapper on when I took it with me. My scale showed 7.7 grams, so I assume these are intended to be around seven grams which is fairly standard. The gaiwan I had on hand was 130ml, so I did this session filling it up to what I know to be around the 100ml mark.

Now, before we move on to the tea, I’ve done a long rant in the past about my weird relationship with white2tea (none of which I’m going to repeat here) and how I might not be the most unbiased person to be reviewing their teas, but I will do my best here to express my honest opinion. I’ve also mentioned in past reviews that I don’t drink a lot of multi-region blends, so I’m a bit out of my comfort zone here. As such, if I come across slightly harsher than normal, that’s why.

With dragon balls, I’ve found that a longer 30s rinse followed by a shorter second rinse / extended first steep at around twenty seconds works quite well for me. That is what I did here as well, thirty seconds followed by twenty seconds after a five-minute rest in between. The first rinse was sweet but still light. There was some body, however, and a nice, silky texture. The second rinse was still light in terms of its flavors, but the extraction itself was much stronger. The taste was clean, mineral, sweet and earthy. The nice texture from the first wash was carried over. I proceeded to do ten more infusions, the timing for these being 4s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 75s and 2 min. Somewhat irregular pattern for me in the middle steeps there.

Compared to the two washes, the first flash steep was really light and had lost its nice texture. I tasted mainly notes that I associate with a patch of soil in the garden. There was also some sweetness there. The second steep was stronger, really earthy/peaty with a dirty taste to it. Can’t say I was a fan. Slight creaminess in the finish, accompanied by a strong sandy note. The mouthfeel was now better.

The next three infusions were all strong and each stronger than the last. The flavors moved from a combination of leafy and dirt to increasing levels of bitterness, accompanied by at time sweetness, others extreme tartness or even sourness which is a rare one for me to encounter in pu’er. My tongue grew gradually numb from the bitterness, leaving it feeling somewhat similar to it being burned.

This is the point where I needed to start adapting to the tea to regulate it and as a result the sixth brew while still strong and bitter was also now smoother and more balanced. While steep seven was similar, some astringency was now starting to creep in and this culminated in the following infusion where all of the other flavors suddenly dropped off, leaving the tea dominated by astringency. I attempted two more brews, but if I’m being totally honest with you the ninth steep tasted like sock juice to me and the final infusion had hardly any taste to it besides some mild sweetness and astringency.

While we’ll likely never know what exact teas went into this blend, if I’m allowed to speculate a little, it seems fairly clear to me that there’s some Bulang material in this. The mid-to-late steeps are dominated by an aggressive bitterness that is quite familiar to me. As to what other teas went into this, it’s hard to say. The soft, more elegant start could very well come from a Yiwu tea or something of similar character, of which there are many teas out there. If there are any more than two teas in this, I found it extremely hard to tell as the more aggressive tea dominated everything once it got going.

As for the quality of the material, the silky mouthfeel at the start was actually pretty nice, so whatever material was responsible for that might actually be quite good. Once the tea got going, the strength was so good that I actually had to start adapting to the tea on the fly. What puzzled me though was the way the tea just suddenly died at the end. Considering I was holding back on my brew times, I would have expected that to extend the longevity, not diminish it. Perhaps I’m spoiled, but I’m used to teas typically winding down more gracefully. I’m not going to try to read too much into it since I’m no expert, but maybe this means the more aggro material isn’t necessarily gushu but perhaps dashu or younger.

Looking at the leaves at the end of the session, many of the leaves are quite big, but there is a quite high ratio of more oxidized leaves in the mix, many of these quite heavily reddish, not just small blotches. You of course see these in nearly every tea, but it’s usually just a leaf here and there. On the other hand I didn’t spot any leaves with burn marks from the wok.

So what are my thoughts? It wasn’t a bad tea, but it also didn’t really impress me. It is unclear to me where they were really going with this blend. A soft, elegant start, suddenly turning into aggressiveness? I’m going to compare this to Bulang teas, because most of the time the tea behaved like one. At 55¢/g, it’s really hard for me to see this tea being worth its price tag. If I wanted to buy a more aggressive Bulang tea, I could get one with ten years of age on it for around 10¢/g. The material wouldn’t necessarily be as good, but the tea would have gained complexity and notes that this young tea currently lacks. At 55¢/g you can also get crazy good Yiwu teas as long as you sample and find the ones you like. Therefore for me this tea would maybe fall in the 10–20¢/g bracket, not that it matters. Could be that it’ll age into something magical, but I leave that up to those willing to invest a hundred dollars and wait for a decade or two to discover.

And there you have it. If anything, this tea made me want to go drink some more Bulang teas. I should also maybe order some samples of aged Bulangs to expose myself to more semi-aged teas. So far Bitterleaf’s Dear Comrade has been the first aged sheng to click with me, but of course it sold out right after I ordered my sample. Any recommendations for aged teas to include in my next Yunnan Sourcing order are welcome.